Most populated state in India, Uttar Pradesh is home to almost 200 million people. Only four countries in the world have population higher than Uttar Pradesh. U.P is also the world’s most populous subdivision[1]. The state contributes 16.5% of the countries total population. As of Census 2011 there are 915 cities (population over 10,000) in Uttar Pradesh. That is a increase of 211 cities since last census in 2001[2]. In this article we are going to talk about 63 out of these 915 cities in Uttar Pradesh. All of these cities holds a population over 1 lakh each[3].

19,95,81,477 (199.5 million) people live in the Uttar Pradesh. 22.28% of the state’s population live in Urban areas and 56.9% of the urban population live in 63 cities mentioned above. In last 10 years growth rate of urban population in Uttar Pradesh was 28.75%.
A total of 2,53,02,925 (25 million) people live in 63 cities where at-least 10,000 people live in each of them. These 63 cities are situated across 53 out of 71 districts in the state. Ghaziabad is the only district in the state that have 4 cities with population over 10K each. Other than Ghaziabad, Moradabad district have 3 cities. Firozabad, Muzaffarnagar, Kanpur Nagar & Gautam Buddha Nagar districts have 2 such cities each[3].

52.4% of the state’s population are Male and the percentage of male population are ever higher for cities in Uttar Pradesh. 53% population living in cities in U.P. are male. May be because of immigration cities like Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur have the highest percentage of male population. Surprisingly none of these 63 cities have male population lower than female population. Gonda in Gonda district have the lowest 51.1% male population.

Uttar Pradesh is among those states in India where female population ratio is very poor. 47.6% of total population in the state are female. In cities the percentage is even lower at 46.9% only. Just the revers of the above male population Gonda city has the highest 48.9% female population and Noida has the lowest 45.1% female population.

Lucknow the state capital is the most populous city in Uttar Pradesh. If we count the metropolitan area of Kanpur then the population of Kanpur is higher than Lucknow. 28,15,601 peoples live in Lucknow municipal corp, where 27,67,031 people live in Kanpur. Agra, Meerut, Varanasi and Allahabad are cities having population over 10 lakhs (1 million) in the state.

35 out of theses 63 cities have population between 1 lakh to 1.99 lakhs. Kasganj in Kanshiram Nagar district is the least populous city in this list. The city population is 1,01,241. Baraut, Ballia, Shamli and Shikohabad are some least populated cities in the sate.

Uttar Pradesh is among those states in India where female sex ratio is very poor. The state’s female sex ratio is just 908 females per 1000 male and that is far lower than the country average of 940. Female sex ratio in cities in Uttar Pradesh are even lower than the state average. Average female sex ratio in cities of U.P. is just 883.59 females per 100 males[3].

Only one city in Uttar Pradesh having population over 1 lakh has female sex ratio of above 950. The city Gonda in Gonda district has female sex ratio of 955 females per 1000 males. Top five cities in U.P. with population over 1 lakh are Gonda in Gonda district with 955, Maunath Bhanjan in Mau district with 948, Akbarpur in Ambedkar Nagar district with 939, Faizabad in Faizabad district with 920 and Amroha in Jyotiba Phule Nagar district with 918 females per 1000 males.

41 out of 63 cities from this list in U.P. have female sex ration under 900. Two of India’s fastest growing cities have female sex ratio of near 820. Nodia in Gautam Buddha Nagar district have the lowest sex ratio of 822 only. Another city in the same district Greater Nodia have female sex ratio of 836. Other than these two cities the state capital Kanpur too has very poor sex ratio of 846 women per 1000 men.

Overall literacy rate in Uttar Pradesh is lower than the national literacy rate of 74%. 69.7% population above 7 years of age in the state are literate where 67.55% rural and 77.01% urban population are literate. In cities of Uttar Pradesh literacy rates are higher but not satisfactory at all. 78.7% population above 7 years of age living in cities with population over 1 lakh and above are literate in the state.
88.7% population in cities in Uttar Pradesh are above 7 years of age and are counted for effective literacy rate. Absolute 1,76,69,408 (17.7 million) people out of 2,24,44,056 (22.4 million) people living in the cities are literate.[3]

Like the rest of India male literacy rate in cities in U.P. is also higher than female literacy rates. 82.8% male population living in cities in U.P. are literate. This is a little higher than the state male literacy rate of 79.2% and the country male literacy rate of 82.1%. There are 15 cities in the state where male literacy rate is above 90%. The city Modinagar in Ghaziabad district has highest 95.2% male literacy rate. 3 big cities in the sate, Noida, Gorakhpur & Allahabad also have male literacy rate above 90%. The state capital Kanpur has male literacy rate of 85.8%.

Female literacy rate in the state of Uttar Pradesh is as low as just 59.3% and that almost 6% lower than the country’s female literacy rate of 65.5%. Female literacy rate in rural U.P. is just 55.6% and the same is quite better in urban areas where it is 71.7%. Female literacy rate in cities in U.P. is 74.1%.
The city Sultanpur in Sultanpur district has the highest 84.7% female liter rate in U.P. Only 16 cities in the state have female literacy rate above 80%. Two big cities Kanpur and Allahabad both have 82.2% female literacy rate.
At the bottom of the table Sambhal in Moradabad district has only 46.5% female literacy rate. Other than Sambhal, cities like Rampur, Agra, Amroha & Khurja have female literacy rate under 60%.

Top five cites with highest literacy rate in Uttar Pradesh are – Modinagar in Ghaziabad with 90%, Deoria in Deoria with 88.8%, both Noida in G.B Nagar and Sultanpur in Sultanpur with 88.6% and Hardoi in Hardoi with 87.2%.
5 cities having the lowest literacy rate in U.P. are – Sambhal in Moradabad with just 49.5%, Rampur in Rampur with 60.7%, Agra in Agra with 63.4%, Amroha in Jyotiba Phule Nagar with 63.9% and Khurja in Bulandshahr with 67.6%.

14.9% of the states population are children under 6 years of age. This almost 2% higher than national child population percentage of 13.1%. Percentage of children in age group of 0-6 years is higher in rural U.P. than urban U.P. 15.63% rural population in the state are children where 12.32% urban population falls in this category.
Percentage of children is even lower in 63 cities mentioned above. Average child population in these cities is 11.3%. Sambhal in Moradabad district has the highest 15.5% child population. The state capital Kanpur has the second lowest child population of just 9.1%. Pilibhit in Pilibhit district has the lowest 9% children under 6 years of age[3].

Like many other sates in India female child sex ratio in Uttar Pradesh is terribly poor. In U.P. there are only 899 girls for every 1000 boys. The same is 914 in allover India. In urban U.P. female child sex ratio is even worse at only 879 girls per 1000 boys and in cities it the worst at just 870 girls per 100 boys.

Only 15 out of 63 cities in Uttar Pradesh have female child sex ratio above 900 and only one city Maunath Bhanjan in Mau district has child sex ratio of above 950. The city has 952 girls per 1000 boys which is the highest in the state. Amroha in Jyotiba Phule Nagar has 946, Akbarpur in Ambedkar Nagar has 937 and Sambhal in Moradabad has 936 female child sex ratio. Capital city Kanpur has surprisingly low female child sex ratio of just 853.

There are three cities in U.P. where female child sex ratio in under 800 girls per 1000 boys and Agra the city of the Taj Mahal has the lowest female child sex ratio of 772 only. Other two cities are Modinagar in Ghaziabad and Shamli in Muzaffarnagar. They have female child sex ratio of 778 and 798 respectively.